JURIES
Swarnavel Eswaran (Juries Chairman)
Swarnavel Eswaran is an associate professor in the Department of English and the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. He is a graduate of the preeminent Film and Television Institute of India and the prestigious film studies program at the University of Iowa. His significant documentaries include Nagapattinam: Waves from the Deep (2018), Hmong Memories at the Crossroad (2016), Migrations of Islam (2014), and Unfinished Journey: A City in Transition (2012), among others. His research focuses on Tamil cinema’s history, aesthetics, politics, and the contemporary digital era and the concomitant changes in the consumption and production of films.
His books include Tamil Cinema Reviews: 1931-1960 (Nizhal Publications, 2020) and Madras Studios: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema (Sage Publications, 2015). His fiction feature Kattumaram (Catamaran, 2019), a collaboration with Tamil’s cinema’s leading director Mysskin, is currently on the film festival circuit.
Kasim Jeshi (Jury)
Kasim Jeshi completed postgraduate in Mass Communication/ Journalism. She have over 20 years of experience in the field of Journalism in India. Currently working as Senior Assistant Editor with MetroPlus, the features desk of The Hindu, a 143-year-old national newspaper in India and seeking new challenges every day. Rated as a consistent performer, she have significant exposure in reporting, feature writing, production, and editing. And also she focusing on writing crisp, reader-friendly, flab-free articles. Light, but not frivolous. She play an integral part in the production department where she oversee the features edition in terms of content and design. Besides striking headings, she also work with the design team to ensure that the product is visually stunning. As part of the production work, she edit stories, rewrite, check for facts, eliminate jargon and ensure that the copies are error-free before sending the edition to print. She design pages, make them live with the addition of visuals, and info boxes, and am always conscious of meeting the deadline.
A keen observer of emerging trends, she engage with readers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Besides making videos and reels on Instagram, & she host Instagram lives with personalities.
Mohan Dass (Jury)
Award winning Writer, Director, Mohan Dass apart from film making has successfully conducted the Lakecity International Film Festival, Gwalior over the years has now widened his horizons by taking the concept of film festivals to various cities across India and the globe. With Lakecity being a yearly event well entrenched on to the scene, he is all set to promote Indian Cinema, Art and Culture onto a global platform by joining hands and collaborating with a multitude of film festivals in many countries or offering support to a host of upcoming festivals across the world.
He has run short film competitions and workshops, organised screenings for international feature films, and is also working as the festival consultant for feature films. With so much of experience to gather, it was natural for him to be invited on many a film festival as jury including Frames Film Festival (Mumbai),
Nilofer-e-Aabi International Film Festival (Mumbai), Aahan International Short Film Festival (Mumbai), Kala Samruddhi International Film Festival (Mumbai), Cotton City International Film Festival (Akola), Acharya Tulsi Short Film Festival (Bikaner), Cortokino International Film Festival (Mumbai) and others.
Award Winning Writer , Director and Producer
- Honorary Doctorate for Humanity & Peace by ITMUT, Brazil.
- Writer, Director, Producer & Journalist.
- Publisher & Editor in Chief LABELS INDIA magazine.
- Jury – Penzance (UK) Film Festival, K Asif Film Fest, Cotton City, Nilofer-E-Abi, Bollywood and many more International Film Festivals.
- The organizer of Lakecity, Ayodhya & Karnavati International Film Festival.
- Started his career as Asst. Director with Legendary Filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Tapan Sinha.
- Associate Producer of IFFI 97 Opening film DAUGHTERS OF THIS CENTURY.
Amudhan R. P (Jury)
Amudhan R. P. (Puṣhpam Rāmaliŋkam Amudhaņ), born in 1971 in Madurai) is a documentary filmmaker and media activist. Along with local youth, he founded Marupakkam, a media activism group involved with making documentaries, and organizing regular screenings, film festivals, and media workshops in and around Madurai. He has been making documentaries since 1997. His prominent films include two trilogies on caste and nuclear radiation. ‘Shit’ won the best film award at the One Billion Eyes film festival in 2005 and the National Jury Award at the MIFF in 2006.
Amudhan R.P. founded Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival in 1998 and Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival has been organizing the festival since then.
Jeyanthan Jesudas (Jury)
Jeyanthan Jesudas has been working as a full-time journalist for over 25 years and holds a Master’s in Education in Visual Communication. Having worked in all types of media such as print, television, and the internet, he has the extensive and in-depth journalistic experience and is currently working as an assistant editor in the newspaper ‘Hindu Tamil Thisai’. Research articles written by him about century-old Tamil cinema and pioneering screen personalities are constantly receiving attention from the readership. His film articles get reviewed and received with respect among the readers. He has a special interest in observing films and world-renowned directors that are gaining attention in world cinema and recording them for the mass media.
In the last two years, his two serials, ‘Thirai Palli’, which he wrote on the ‘art of screenplay writing’ in the Hindu Tamil Thisai daily, and ‘Taramani’, which presented a detailed portrait of personalities who achieved in the Indian film industry after studying at the Tamil Nadu Government M.G.R. Film and Television Institute, have received great readership in the last two years.
He has also worked as an assistant director for some films with film directors Cheran and Bharat Bala. At the 17th Chennai International Film Festival (2019), appointed as one of the three judges for the competition category for Tamil films. He was also appointed as one of the five judges for the ‘Best Critic’ competition for South Korean films in 2019 organized by the South Korean Embassy in Chennai.
